


The Fourth Wall

by Taikanaakka



Series: Additional Chapters to Mirage [4]
Category: Elder Scrolls, Elder Scrolls Online
Genre: Daggerfall, Elder Scrolls Lore, Gen, Linnea - Freeform, Mages, Psijic Order, Rescue Missions, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-17
Updated: 2019-07-17
Packaged: 2020-06-30 06:58:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,246
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19847932
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Taikanaakka/pseuds/Taikanaakka
Summary: Linnea is now a member of the Psijic Order. She returns to Daggerfall because of a mission she got from the Order. This is an additional chapter to my Elder Scrolls Online fan fiction story Mirage. Linnea, Aleksei, Olivier and William are my OCs. The name of this chapter might give a hint about some events that take place in it.





	The Fourth Wall

The time breaches and the treasure - those were the two reasons that had brought Linnea back here. She had thought that she would never return to Daggerfall, not after everything that had taken place in her life after she had left. Her friends and the person that had been her loved one were probably still in the misconception that she had died while slaying Angof the Gravesinger and saving Glenumbra from him and the Bloodthorns. It had happened about a couple of years ago, and during all this time she had not contacted them to tell that she was okay.

However, now she found herself standing in the heavy rain on the road that led to the city of Daggerfall. She knew that there would be a time breach - a distortion in the time itself, caused by the events related to the Staff of Towers - nearby but she did not know where exactly. To seal those breaches and prevent them causing havoc on Tamriel was the reason why she had returned to High Rock; after assisting the Psijic Order to save the Summerset Isles and Artaeum from turmoil caused by the Court of Bedlam, a vile Daedric alliance, she had been invited to join the Order and was now on their mission to prevent the Staff from causing troubles on Nirn. She had taken care of several time rifts across Tamriel already, and quite strange and bizarre things appeared to be taking place near the unsealed ones every time she found a remaining one.

Linnea stuck her hand to the pocket of her Psijic robes and touched the keys of her new manor, Daggerfall Overlook. Last time she had met High King Emeric while dealing with the time breach in Wayrest, he had insisted on donating the castle-like house for her, hoping her to settle in there and make it her new home and stating to her that perhaps it would be time for her to settle down. She had no intentions to settle down though - and least in a place close to Daggerfall - but what interested her in that mansion was that the High King had promised her that she would also be the owner of the tremendous riches that would be hidden in a vault on the second floor of the building. Linnea had never before been very interested in such but she had started to notice how being wealthy would make some things significantly easier - and saving Daggerfall Covenant and the whole Tamriel from different kinds of threats and crises had always been an incredibly underpaid job!

_"Hey, there's a cute, little breach nearby, hurry mate!"_ she suddenly heard the voice of the Augur of the Obscure telling her. The Psijic Loremaster Celarus had given her that talking, blue-shaded but transparent, skull-shaped artifact, since it was supposed to help her to find the time breaches.

"Alright, alright," Linnea said aloud but continued thinking about the last time she had met the High King; now she began to wonder his somewhat strange behaviour. Why would Emeric want her to settle down here, when he had always before admired her novelty-seeking nature and been so fascinated to hear the stories about her adventures? She became more than slightly worried that the Vaermina cultists were meddling with the High King's dreams again or something like that would be taking place, thus she asked the Augur: "Hey, should I be concerned about High King Emeric?" The Augur laughed and replied her: _"Nah, don't worry about him, mate, he'll be as fine as he can be!"_ so Linnea relaxed; even though the Augur was either lying or explaining something incomprehensible almost all the time it chatted to her, it was bound to tell the truth, when it was asked a direct question.

"Good. Now then, where's the next breach?" she asked the Augur. Her heart skipped a beat, when it replied: _"In the Daggerfall Castle - now hurry there, mate, hurry!"_ Aleksei, her old loved one lived in the castle, since he was an officer in the Daggerfall City Guard, so it appeared quite possible that she would meet him there! "Uh...you don't happen to know how to cast a spell of invisibility?" she asked the Augur, feeling extremely uneasy and nervous, and it answered: _"Of course I do! Thousands of them...but you meat-brain wouldn't possibly have enough time to learn any of them now! Oh, I don't mean that you're unintelligent but just...well, a bit clumsy, that's why!"_

"Oh... _the lag_...is incredible here," Linnea heard someone complaining, as she walked through the crowded marketplace - she herself froze for a moment at the stairs that led to the castle.

As she entered the third floor of the castle, where she anticipated to find the breach, since the Augur had guided her there, she saw Aleksei and his friends, William and Oliver standing close to an opened window and discussing about something frightened. They had not noticed her yet, so she stood silently at the end of the corridor and listened to their discussion, trying to figure out what was going on; apparently, they were planning an attempt to rescue a little child from a rooftop.

"Oh, dear Gods, I can't understand how he could've gotten there, I was gone only for a while! He couldn't possibly have opened that window by himself - and besides, the window was closed when I returned to the room! But I need to go to get him away from there before..." Aleksei said distressed but William stated:

"No, I'll do it. I'm more agile than you are."

"Maybe, but I won't let anyone else risk their lives because of my mistake. He's my little brother and I should've taken better care of him!" Aleksei objected.

"Please, Alex, come back to your senses and let me do it. For heaven's sake, I used to be a thief, so I've got experience of climbing on rooftops and I'm not afraid of high places," William tried to reason with him.

"I'll do it," Olivier stated. They turned to look at him surprised, and he explained: "’Cos I think I'm _an immortal NPC_." They both exclaimed something appalled but he continued with a serious tone: "Well, have you ever seen a guard getting killed _?_ I mean, when I just think about all those creepy people roaming the streets these days, wearing macabre, dyed heavy armour, murdering and robbing our citizens...I've had to fight against those monsters - they've thrown horrible, powerful spells and melee attacks on me but I never lose to them...I never die or even get injured! Therefore I must be immortal."

"Well, I guess you're right about that," William admitted but added: "except if there's _a quest_ taking place...I think we can die in such, though." However, eventually he came into the conclusion: "But on the other hand, I don't see any _quest marker_ near us, so I think it's pretty safe to assume that this isn't a part of some _quest_."

_"Oh, this reality_ _is_ _really falling apart,"_ Linnea thought upset, as she stared at a crate that was floating in the air and the floor that had become partially transparent. Fortunately, she knew what she should do next; she walked to the window and looked down. Aleksei and his friends noticed her presence, thus she explained: "I'll rescue him."

Now they recognized her and Aleksei cried out startled: "Oh dear Gods, it can't be...is that you, Linnea! Wait!" but she told that there was no time to waste - she would have to act before she would have time to get scared, since she indeed was afraid of high places! Thus, she climbed to the window and took a leap forward. She heard Aleksei and William gasping shocked as she jumped down and Olivier pacifying them: "I think that ghosts cannot die."

She landed onto the rooftop where the baby was. She grabbed him quickly and whispered: "Hold on." Suddenly the roof beneath her feet collapsed and they started falling down - it all ended in a loud crashing sound and a bright flash of light.

_"Oh_ _,_ _dear Gods, I can't understand how he could've gotten there, I was gone only for a while! He couldn't possibly have opened that window by himself - and besides, the window was closed when I returned to the room! But I need to go to get him away from there before..." Aleksei said distressed but William stated:_

_"No, I'll do it. I'm more agile than you are."_

_"Maybe, but I won't let anyone else risk their lives because of my mistake. He's my little brother and I should've taken better care of him!" Aleksei objected._

_"Please, Alex, come back to your senses and let me do it. For heaven's sake, I used to be a thief, so I've got experience of climbing on rooftops and I'm not afraid of -"_ William was stating but a loud crashing sound and bright flash of light behind them interrupted him; " - _Linnea_!" he cried out instead, as they saw her standing behind them at the corridor - holding the little child in her arms!

"Hopefully I didn't cause a massive _Dragon Break_ ," she said as she looked at the three Breton men that had turned rather pale. Then she gave the child to Aleksei, stating: "And someone should probably change his diaper soon!" and walked to the opened window. She felt slightly nervous when she looked down but to her great relief, she did not see a replica of the child down there. Instead, where the child had been, there now was a time breach emitting its light, there. She cast a spell towards it and sealed it with the Psijic magic. Then she looked around and sighed in extreme relief, as she clearly felt that the reality was whole and stable again, and the distortions appeared to be gone.

"And all this time I thought you were dead. Why in Oblivion didn't you let me know that you survived...that you're alive and well?" Aleksei eventually asked Linnea upset but without raising his voice; despite their unexpected and emotional reunion he had kept his voice down during their conversation, since he did not want to wake up his little brother who now was sleeping peacefully, after the eventful day.

"Well, it took me some time to find out that I wouldn't become...that I would survive after all. After that I knew I wouldn't return to Daggerfall, and I thought you would've stayed here...you have your life here, everything that's important to you...I wouldn't have wanted you to come with me. Moving on felt easier that way, I guess," she tried to explain.

"Whether to stay here or come with you - that would've been my decision to make, damn it! All the pain I've felt...and now that you're here, I almost wish you really were -" he said but changed his mind and did not finish the sentence.

"You're right...I'm so sorry for everything," she apologized him; he walked away from her and sighed, then he eventually said to her:

"Linnea, I'm engaged now. And I'm getting married soon."

"Oh, well, congratulations, then. Are you happy with her?" she replied with a neutral tone and he answered:

"Aye...I really love her."

She looked at him confidently, even smiling a bit when she said: "Good, then I'm happy for you. And, don't worry, I didn't come here to stay. I'm a Psijic sage now. I'm just taking care of some things on Tamriel, and then I'll return to Artaeum, back to where my order lives. I'll just check my new mansion near Daggerfall before I leave."

"Alright, then," he said - and then asked confused: "What mansion are you talking about, by the way?"

_"You living your life as a Psijic monk on Artaeum? You surely don't believe that yourself, mate, do you?"_ the Augur asked her as she was walking to the place where her new house was supposed to be, and then it continued: _"You know, mate, you could win him back to you - to challenge her to a duel_ _!_ _Y_ _ou’d certainly win! Or make it look like an accident..."_

She stopped walking and took the Augur from the pocket of her robes. She held it in her hand, looking it to the sockets and asked: "Will he be happier with her than he would be with me?"

_"Yes,"_ the Augur replied.

"Indeed. Now, stop talking about this topic, or I'll stick you into a pile of shit!" she intimidated.

_"Alright, alright,"_ it agreed - and then informed her cheerfully: _"Hey, there's a breach nearby! And, it appears to be in your mansion, mate!"_

When she had opened the gate of the front yard of her mansion she saw the time breach radiating light at the front door. She cast the spell and closed it - and as soon as it had been sealed, the mansion, the fence surrounding it, and the keys of it in her hands simply disappeared into the thin air! Now there was only pristine nature surrounding her in the place where the buildings and the garden had been just a moment earlier!

"By Sheogorath's Madness! Where did it go?" she asked astonished, and the Augur explained that it had gone to another reality. "And...my treasure?" she asked, despite anticipating its fate already.

_"Also gone to another time and space...it was an impossible treasure, mate!"_ the Augur replied.


End file.
